| Yhteenveto: | Musical pitch processing has been studied extensively, but rarely in the context of
affective pitch processing, or of individual differences in pitch processing. In this study,
participants answered surveys measuring personality and empathy dimensions. They then
listened to tonal chord sequences to determine whether they sounded correct or incorrect, and
whether they sounded happy or sad, while electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded. The last
chord of each sequence could be either incorrect (containing one note which is out of tune) or
correct (containing no such mistuning), and affective content was varied by having sequences
resolve in major and minor modes. Personality dimension agreeableness correlated positively
with the frequency of musical emotion ratings that agree with music theory. A number of other
individual difference variables correlated with EEG amplitudes. Early (300-500ms) electrical
brain responses differentiated major-mode, correctly tuned target chords from other target
chords. Later (600-800ms, 900-1100ms, 1600-1800ms) electrical brain responses differentiated
correctly and incorrectly tuned target chords. This study lends moderate evidence for systematic
individual differences in pitch processing. Also, it appears as though the mode of mistuned
target chords can modulate brain responses to tuning violations through either sensory or
affective processes.
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